Halapatov

Chapter Seven

By now, this trip was of no shock to my mind or body. Having already travelled by teleport twice - and one of those times involved an awful lot of pain - the detachment of my consciousness from physicality as my body was reduced to loosely bonded particles in order to project my whole being across a higher plane to another point in space hardly fazed me. It seemed I was fairly adaptable, and fair enough, as I was able to pick up most new things quite easily.

Although the darkness was paralyzing, the emptiness suffocating (despite my lack of need to breathe) and the sickening feeling of falling through space terrifying, my thoughts were consumed by the thought of Halapatov. It was quite un-paladanian of me actually to be so fixated on what was all things considered a meaningless journey, but hey, I didn't really care. Sophie brought out my fun side.

As if we collided with something mid-transfer I felt a sudden jolt and then Sophie and I grew nearer to our destination, before appearing with a crash. I pulled myself instantly from the floor and looked around. It was... pretty unimpressive actually. We were in a back alley in an industrial area, where a lot of development work was being done. Important to lifestyle but not as dazzling as the kind of place I expected. I glanced inquisitively at Sophie, who, now on her feet, was frowning at the display on her watch.

"We're in the wrong place, aren't we?" I asked even though I clearly knew the answer, my lips turning up in an amused smirk. As an afterthought I remembered that I was on another planet and glanced up at the alien sky, letting out a joyful whoop. We were here. Sophie gave a distracted chuckle from where she still stood stagnant. "Oh, Sophie, don't fuss with specifics. We're on Halapatov and that's what matters." How was I so sure, you may ask? Because of the architecture and sky mainly. The characteristic red colour and look of the sky would have been enough to be certain but the Halapatovian buildings definitely helped my assertion.

"Why are we so off course?" Sophie muttered, bringing up a rough map of the area. She was right. We were nowhere near our intended destination, not even on the same continent.

I glanced around me, hopping from foot to foot to stave off my excitement as I tried to come up with an answer.

"Did you feel that strange sensation during the trip, like we hit something?" I asked, jaw set as my pondering came to fruition. "Is that a regular thing?"

Sophie bit her lip, and shook her head. "You're right; there definitely was something. Never felt anything like it before. What could it be?"

"Perhaps another traveller? A signal? An experiment involving the astral plane?" My mind went into overdrive as I raced through possibilities, selecting the most likely as my replies.

She smiled softly, clearly amused by my rambling, and then waved her hand dismissively, minimizing the coordinate screen. She grabbed my hand. "No need to worry about it. Let's try again. Hopefully this time it'll work."

"Alright then." I supplied and then held on tight as she input our coordinates again. The telltale humming of the teleport watch began and after only a short wait we were beamed across space again.

This time there was no strange occurrence during our journey. I was on full alert the whole time, hoping to be able to discern the actuality of the collision if it did happen again. Of course that was pointless and just left me slightly disoriented.

Stumbling as I materialized for the second time that day, we landed in a secluded grove ringed by reddish trees that shone gold, with light brush around our feet. The sky was a stunning orange over the treeline, blending with the dark bluish hues of space beyond, and thus I knew it was dawn. A few silver clouds hung in the sky. Positive we were at the right place this time, I threw myself erratically down and lay in the grass. and beamed up at the sky excitedly.